LABH SINGH Vs. SHRIMATI JOGINDER KAUR AND ANOTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition has arisen from an application instituted on the 14th July, 1971, under section 13 of the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act) by one Rajinder Singh for eviction of the petitioner from a shop situated in the town of Patiala. Rajinder Singh claimed that the petitioner was a tenant under him in respect of that shop and sought eviction on the grounds that the petitioner had not paid the rent for the entire period subsequent to the 1st of March, 1970, and that the shop in dispute had become unsafe and unfit for human habitation. According to him, the rate of rent payable by the petitioner was Rs 5/ - per mensem which was payable by the petitioner in addition to the house -tax assessed in respect of the shop

(2.) IN his written statement the petitioner pleaded, inter alia, that the rate of rent agreed upon was Rs. 40/ - per mensem, that the rent due for the period from the 1st of March, 1970, to the 30th of November, 1970 calculated at that rate had been tendered along with costs and interest to Rajinder Singh on the first date of hearing in a previous application instituted under section 13 of the Act on the 12 of October, 1970, by the latter, that the relationship of landlord and tenant did not exist between the parties and that the shop in dispute was neither unsafe nor unfit for human habitation.

(3.) RAJINDER Singh died during the pendency of the proceedings before the Controller and his wife and four sons who are his legal representatives were substituted for him at the trial stage and that is why they figure as landlords -respondents before me.